ORC staffer calls it quits
OTAGO Regional Council stakeholder engagement director Caroline Rowe is leaving the council to take up a new parttime post at Columba College.
Michele Poole will serve as acting director until a replacement is appointed.
Mrs Rowe has held her current post for 20 months, after previously serving as the Dunedinbased project manager of Land, Air, Water
Aotearoa (Lawa).
This collaborative group includes the country’s 16 regional councils and unitary authorities, and — through internet site www.lawa.org.nz — offers the public information on water quality at many beaches, rivers and streams throughout the country.
Her time at the Otago council had been ‘‘relatively short’’, but she had worked in the regional council sector for about eight years overall, including at Horizons Regional Council, which covers Manawatu and Whanganui.
‘‘It’s with mixed feelings that I step out for a while and give something else a whirl,’’ she said in an email yesterday.
She was now ‘‘scaling back work a little bit’’ to spend time with her young children and would be working 20 hours a week at Columba College in a development role from next Monday.
Her council role, communicating with a wide range of people throughout Otago, had been enjoyable but had ‘‘certainly been a challenge’’.
She appreciated Otago people were ‘‘really passionate’’ about their region.
Progress had been achieved in communicating the council’s aims and a ‘‘really good team’’ would continue that work, and partnerships which had already been established, she said.